How to impeach a president
THE bizarre story of Park Geun-hye’s corruption graced the world’s headlines in October, when it was revealed that Park’s confidante Choi Soon-sil, daughter of a shaman who claimed to communicate with Park’s dead mother, had been accused of collecting more than $700 million in bribes. As the jaw-dropping details of the scandal were revealed – in addition to allegedly collecting bribes, Choi was said to have edited presidential speeches and embezzled from the budget for the coming Winter Olympics – the public boiled over. Many called for the president’s immediate impeachment.
Rather than succumbing to the torrent of public emotion, South Korea’s liberals carefully avoided any appearance of radicalism. In the months between the discovery of Park’s corruption and her removal, liberals acted vigorously but with restraint. They were determined to show the public they were not an invading mob bent on a palace coup, but rather that they could be entrusted to restore order from the chaos.
The leaders of the Democratic Party, Korea’s main liberal party, moved deliberately. Instead of jumping straight to impeachment, the party made a point of giving Park options for a dignified exit. But as Park rejected one offer of compromise after another, she gradually showed voters that impeachment was the only option.
For 17 consecutive weeks during Korea’s freezing winter, activists hosted the famed “candlelight protests”. Each week for four months, huge crowds – averaging more than a million – gathered in Seoul’s City Hall Square.
The candlelight protests were scrupulously nonviolent – and this was no accident. The organisers – many of them labour union leaders with deep experience in organising massive demonstrations – actively enforced order by clamping down on the radical fringe.
Activists came up with creative ways for people to vent their emotions without indulging in violence. To name but one example, artist Lee Gang-heon prepared and distributed 200,000 flower stickers. When the police buses blocked the path of the protesters, the protesters covered the buses with stickers until they resembled mounds of beautiful flowers. Such restraint turned the candlelight protests into family-friendly events, allowing the crowd to become even larger without falling into disorder. In doing so, the liberals made them- selves appear mainstream.
South Korea’s experience offers an important lesson. Impeachment is a radical step, which comes only after a long period of fractious politics. Many voters, alienated by the fuss, will simply tune out. To win them over, those pushing for the president’s removal must show the public they can be trusted to bring stability and common sense back to the government.
By acting with maturity, Korean liberals gained more than impeachment and removal of a conservative president. They created an environment in which the succeeding liberal administration could govern effectively. In the presidential election following the removal, Moon Jae-in won the largest margin of victory in Korean democratic history. The mandate from the electoral victory carried over, as Moon enjoyed approval ratings in the mid-’80s for months.
With the wind in his sails, Moon has been able to implement his agenda, raising the minimum wage more than 16 percent and gearing up to increase taxes on the wealthy while cutting taxes for small businesses. Although it has been less than three months since Moon took office, the partisanship that paralysed the Park administration seems like a memory. American antiTrump activists would be well-advised to take note.